Festo Expands US Logistics Centre With WITRON

Innovative products, innovative customer service, and an innovative logistics concept - these are some of the factors behind the success of Festo, one of the global market leaders in automation technology.

The fact that these measures are bearing fruit shows itself through the new expansion project of the Regional Service Centre (RSC) in Mason, in Ohio, awarded to the company in the middle of September, this year.

The RSC in Mason is responsible for supplying products to customers in the USA, Canada, and Mexico from an assortment of more than 20,000 items. All items are delivered a day after the orders are placed.

WITRON Logistik and Informatik GmbH, the companies that put the US logistics centre into operation in 2015, have received the order for the realisation.

The global player Festo, headquartered in Esslingen, Germany, has been implementing joint logistics projects with the general contractor from Parkstein since 1994.

Earlier-Than-Expected Deadlines

Although, the expansion of the logistics capacities was already considered in the overall concept planned by WITRON, it has to be realised earlier than originally expected due to Festo’s very good business development in the NAFTA zone and its permanently growing online business.

The expansion of the logistics system will be integrated into the existing building, which will then add an approximate area of 11,800 square meters to the facility in 2019.

Installation works carried out by WITRON will follow subsequently. The basic module will be the automated OPS (Order Picking System).

Once installations are completed, Festo Mason will be able to store 20% more items and pick 30% more orders than before - a total of 520 packages per hour.

This is made possible by two additional multi-functional picking workstations (in total 10), four additional ergonomic packing stations (in total 18), and additional 15,000 AS/RS storage locations (in total 223,500) distributed over five aisles (in total 15).

It is scheduled to become operational in the beginning of 2021.

Two-Digit Growth In North America

Festo Project Manager, Andreas Wiebe, explained, “Our two-digit growth in North America, as well as the support of our customers on their way to digitalisation, has made this further investment necessary.

“Being a full-range provider with a very high service standard worldwide, the simple technical implementation to control complexity is a crucial competitive factor.”

"This has never been achieved by any of our competitors, Developments in an increasingly digital environment, also driven by E-Commerce, require logistics processes and logistics capacities that are geared to future requirements. With WITRON as a development partner, we see ourselves on the right track,” he added.